The Future of Podcasting and Public Radio

I stole some of that byline from Doug Kaye and interjected my own. Some perspective I had been contacted by the local Barnes and Noble to do a book signing for my book Podcasting “The Do It Yourself Guide” one yesterday, and one that will happen later today. The locals stores like to highlight local authors so I obviously agreed to participate. Being Hawaii is not the middle of the tech mecca I wondered how many would express an interest in podcasting or even knew what podcasting was. So I arriving at the prescribed time.

I spent the next 90 minutes talking to a lot of people, some where obviously to shy or did not want to admit they did not know what podcasting was all about. My lead in question was have you listened to audio on the Internet if the answer was yes, I said would you like to take that Audio with you wherever you go, many said yes, finally I said is their some subject you are passionate about that people seek information from you. Many said yes! My follow up was, you are the perfect podcasting candidate as podcasting gives you the individual a way to share with the entire world information on that subject.

I saw a lot of flash bulbs going off in people and the questions really started coming then, this was typically the 40 and under crowd. Many that are 40+ have computers but they are struggling with the technology. We also have a lot of people in the world that an MP3 player or even a computer is a extreme luxury.

Almost everyone has a Radio, and Radio’s are cheap to buy thus until we get everyone wired, and make technology easy to use regardless the age and make it easy for everyone to enjoy this exploding market of cool content will largely be adopted by those that are really connected.

The question is are we about to establish a new social class of people in that their will be those that are connected and dialed in to those that are not?

Until everyone is connected Public Radio is going to be hear for a very very long time. But they are also in a position to radically change their format and embrace the new content and help bridge the divide that exist out their.

When one looks at the model KYOURadio.com has adapted I can see some smart people have realized that communications is changing and although they may mess with their lineup to figure out what works but we are on to something here that is going to profoundly change the way we consume content in the out years.

About geeknews

Todd Cochrane is the Founder of Geek News Central and host of the Geek News Central Podcast. He is a Podcast Hall of Fame Inductee and was one of the very first podcasters in 2004. He wrote the first book on podcasting, and did many of the early Podcast Advertising deals in the podcasting space. He does two other podcasts in addition to Geek News Central. The New Media Show and Podcast Legends.
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